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s939 or lga775 for $500 upgrade

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - s939 or lga775 for $500 upgrade

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mjcutri   04-07-2006 at 10:34:33 PM

Please don't respond unless you read my whole post!
(I know its long)

I've been doing a lot of research and browsing the forums and I've decided on two possible upgrade paths. I would just like some feedback as to which way to go. I've always leaned towards Ati, but that doesn't mean I won't consider nVidia. This will be my second PC build and I'll probably upgrade the processor to a dual-core when I'm able to scratch up enough dough as I'm married and its easier to get a little money here and there to upgrade rather than a bunch all at the same time. Right now I have an Athlon XP 2000+, radeon 9600pro, 256x2 pc2700, 4 hard drives of varying capacity, sony dru-810a, 16x DVD-rom, 430 watt PS (I cant remember the brand right now and I'm at work).

I have a $400-500 budget for a mobo, proc, memory, and vid card. Everything else i already have. I'm looking to build a system that will be inexpensive now, but upgradable for the next couple years. This will be mostly a web browsing and photo editing machine, and the only games I play are C&C:Generals and SimCity4 (Maybe AoE III). I was really leaning towards a socket 939 (i don't want to wait for AM2), but i hear conroe will run on a 975x mobo with a bios update, and I thought that lga775 might be a better option now, especially since I plan on upgrading the processor in the near future anyway. Also, would it be worth it to limp along on my current memory (2x256 pc2700) and spend more on the proc, mobo and/or vid card? Thanks for your help.

Here are the two options I am considering: (with product links)

S939
*Abit AT8 32x- $157 @ ewiz.com
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=M [...] 706b256877
(I like the idea of 2 16x pci-e slots and I like Abit's uGuru)
-or-
Abit AT8 -$105 @ Newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813127230


*AMD 3000+ - $136
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103568

*Powercolor x1600pro - $110
(I'd rather have sm 3.0 and the 7600gt is too much for me right now)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814131318

*Corsair 512x2 pc3200 - $87 (-$15MIR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145450

s939 Total: $490

LGA775
*Intel 975x $215
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813121016

*Intel Celeron D 336 - $68
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819112205

*Powercolor x1600pro - $110
(I'd rather have sm 3.0 and the 7600gt is too much for me right now)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814131318

*Corsair VS 512x2 pc2-5300
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145568

lga775 Total: $478

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shadowduck   04-07-2006 at 11:00:22 PM
- 0 +

Quote :

Please don't respond unless you read my whole post!
(I know its long)

I've been doing a lot of research and browsing the forums and I've decided on two possible upgrade paths. I would just like some feedback as to which way to go. I've always leaned towards Ati, but that doesn't mean I won't consider nVidia. This will be my second PC build and I'll probably upgrade the processor to a dual-core when I'm able to scratch up enough dough as I'm married and its easier to get a little money here and there to upgrade rather than a bunch all at the same time. Right now I have an Athlon XP 2000+, radeon 9600pro, 256x2 pc2700, 4 hard drives of varying capacity, sony dru-810a, 16x DVD-rom, 430 watt PS (I cant remember the brand right now and I'm at work).

I have a $400-500 budget for a mobo, proc, memory, and vid card. Everything else i already have. I'm looking to build a system that will be inexpensive now, but upgradable for the next couple years. This will be mostly a web browsing and photo editing machine, and the only games I play are C&C:Generals and SimCity4 (Maybe AoE III). I was really leaning towards a socket 939 (i don't want to wait for AM2), but i hear conroe will run on a 975x mobo with a bios update, and I thought that lga775 might be a better option now, especially since I plan on upgrading the processor in the near future anyway. Also, would it be worth it to limp along on my current memory (2x256 pc2700) and spend more on the proc, mobo and/or vid card? Thanks for your help.

Here are the two options I am considering: (with product links)

S939
*Abit AT8 32x- $157
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=M [...] 706b256877

*AMD 3000+ - $136
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103568

*Powercolor x1600pro - $110
(I'd rather have sm 3.0 and the 7600gt is too much for me right now)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814131318

*Corsair 512x2 pc3200 - $87 (-$15MIR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145450

s939 Total: $490

LGA775
*Intel 975x $215
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813121016

*Intel Celeron D 336 - $68
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819112205

*Powercolor x1600pro - $110
(I'd rather have sm 3.0 and the 7600gt is too much for me right now)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814131318

*Corsair VS 512x2 pc2-5300
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145568

lga775 Total: $478



Well a few things jump right out at me:

1) The S939 setup is going to smoke the Intel setup. Athlon64 makes the Celeron look sad in every possible way.

2) I don't understand why you chose a $150 motherboard for the S939 solution. Unless you plan on getting 2 brand new (high-end aka $350/card) video cards later, Crossfire/SLI is not worth the money. Get something like the A8N-E and cut tthe motherboard cost down to $92.

3) Now that saved money on the motherboard you have 2 choices: 1) Upgrade the CPU to a 3200+ OR upgrade the RAM to 2GB ($140)

4) For now the video card is fine, but later when you get more cash, you might want to get the best card at that time.

Reply to shadowduck
MrsD   04-07-2006 at 11:15:24 PM
- 0 +

Not sure why you chose that motherboard but you can get a good 939 motherboard for about half that price at newegg.
Secondly isnt Abit almost bankrupt?

Reply to MrsD
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